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INTERVIEW

Interview: Joanna Lee, Composer

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Joanna Lee

Who or what inspired you to take up composing, and pursue a career in music?

I essentially fell into composing – it was a required component of GCSE and A Level music so I started to compose for this and found the area of music I really loved; I preferred creating and experimenting with music rather than performing or repeating what already exists. I have played the piano since I was four – my Mother encouraged me to lessons – and I have never looked back; music has been my life and considering another career didn’t cross my mind.

Who or what were the most significant influences on your musical life and career as a composer?

There are several people that have been significant influences in my musical life. Initially, my childhood piano and school music teachers, who fed my endless musical appetite and encouraged me to composing and music college. From there, my undergraduate teacher Joe Cutler, the first person to teach me that there were actually living composers (!), whilst also having an open-minded approach to different styles of music. Plus other mentors who have selflessly shown faith and generosity to me as a young composer, such as Jane Manning and Oliver Knussen.

Hearing the Rite of Spring by Stravinsky during A Level was a revelation; I had not heard modern music before this. I am also from the east of Suffolk, where the incredible legacy of Benjamin Britten is strongly felt. A huge turning point was being introduced to the ‘avant garde’ composers and works of the 1950s/60s, e.g. Eight Songs for a Mad King by Peter Maxwell Davies, Aventures by Ligeti, Sequenza by Berio. This era initiated a prolonged period of inspiration and direction for my composition.

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Interview: Moonkyung Lee, Violinist

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Who or what inspired you to take up the violin and make it your career?

I was five when I saw a violin for the first time. I was naturally drawn to it, and it became a part of me from that moment.

Who or what were the most important influences on your musical life and career?

My first violin teacher whom I met when I was 12. Before that, I didn’t really have teachers as I was just playing the violin for fun. After meeting him, I became serious about the instrument, and he actually made me realise that I, perhaps, could be good at this! He passed away about 20 years ago, but the memory of him is still held in my heart every moment.

What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?

Leaving my 13-month-old son back home to make a recording with the London Symphony Orchestra in London. I used to love traveling all over the world for performances before, but since my son was born, I want to stay with him as much as possible.

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Interview: Richard Causton, Composer

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Richard Causton

Who or what inspired you to take up composing, and pursue a career in music?

I started playing the flute at quite a young age and, once I figured out how to read music I realised that I could put notes together how I wanted to and saw that this could be as much or more fun than just reading other people’s. This was possible only thanks to the free tuition and instrument loan that state schools offered back then: I was extremely lucky to attend the Centre for Young Musicians in Pimlico (then run by the Inner London Education Authority). Now, after many years, I am very happy to be an Honorary Patron of the CYM.

Who or what were the most significant influences on your musical life and career as a composer?

I think that, as a teenager, seeing Michael Tippett quite a lot at concerts – hearing new works by him and hearing him talk about them before the performance – had a huge impact on me. It was vital in making me realise that composers are living people and that their imaginations are shaped by the world we all live together in.

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Interview: Emanuel Rimoldi, Pianist

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Emanuel Rimoldi

Who or what inspired you to take up the piano and pursue a career in music?

I believe I’m a pianist because of a profound instinct which was born in me from the first time I touched a piano. When I began to study it, from the beginning, I knew that there was nothing else I could do in my life.

I even remember how I chose between piano and violin, saying that I like the violin but piano is a part of me.

Who or what were the most important influences on your musical life and career?

Well, I have many who’s because many people and events influenced my musical life:

I had several teachers, some were exceptional, some not so much, but I found all useful somehow because I could understand how I want to play and how I don’t want to play which is actually equal important!

But probably the event that made the biggest change in my playing was encountering the Russian piano school at the Moscow Conservatory where I studied for 5 years under the direction of Elisso Virsaladze.

 

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Interview: Aydenne Simone, jazz & blues vocalist

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Aydenne Simone

Who or what inspired you to take up singing and pursue a career in music?

My father was a jazz musician, and a massive jazz fan. Jazz is what I grew up listening to and was given my first jazz album at 6 years old.

Who or what were the most important influences on your musical life and career?

Sarah Vaughan, Eydie Gorme, and Ella Fitzgerald

What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?

Well every day is a school day, and the greatest challenge has got to be to consistently striving forward and raising the bar. When the bar is raised you have two choices step up, or step out. I choose to step up and take on the challenge to constantly improve what I do.

(Full Interview)

Natalie Clein: ‘You rarely find a selfish cellist, we’re so sociable’

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Natalie Clein

A leading player who features prominently is Crouch Hill-based Natalie Clein, who told me recently “it’s a cliché that the cello is the closest any man-made instrument comes to the human voice, but true. The range of notes is much the same. And whenever I work with singers – as I will during the “Unwrapped” season – I always feel that my bowing arm is related to the way the singer breathes.

“Of course I’m biased, but I think this human quality is the reason why composers are often inspired to write their most heartfelt music for us. For virtuosity they go to the violin, but for sincerity it’s the cello”.

Ideals aside, though, there’s another explanation she advances for the clubbability of cellists: the “shared trauma”, as she calls it, of travelling with an instrument almost as big as yourself.

“Everyone knows the stories, but I can’t tell you how stressful it is, endlessly turning up at airports and being faced with problems – even when you’ve booked a second ticket in the name of Mr Cello and think it’s sorted out.

“My cello once ended up in the cockpit with the pilot, because the plane was overbooked. Appealing to the pilot is often the only way to get yourself and the instrument on board. I’ve been through it all, time and again. And only another cellist really understands what it’s like. No wonder we stick together”.

“Cello Unwrapped” opens at Kings Place, Jan 7 at 7.30pm, followed by a late-night performance of Kodaly’s monumental solo sonata at 9.45pm. Series continues 11, 13, 14 Jan, and into the year.

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